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REAL awakening for service ... Councillor Dale Mulgrew
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Damning report forces out boss
Katie Fitzpatrick1/12/2007
THE adult care service provided by Rochdale council has been heavily criticised after a government inspection.
It has resulted in the head of service, Stephen Netherwood, quitting his post – he has taken early retirement – and the service being downgraded from two star to one.
There has also been calls for the cabinet head of health and social care, Councillor Dale Mulgrew, to resign.
The report of the Commission for Social Care Inspection said performance management was under-developed and poorly implemented, plans were either not in place, poorly co-ordinated or lacked precision and there were inadequate hospital discharge arrangements.
Criticism was made of both at-home and residential care services.
The report said strategies to develop older people’s independence had not been prioritised, there was limited evidence of training opportunities for managers and workforce development strategy was poor.
In response, Rochdale Council now plans to appoint a new director of adult care and implement an improvement plan.
Councillor Mulgrew says the council will now re-commit to introducing home care changes proposed earlier in the year – which means the privatisation of the home care service.
It also means a ‘re-ablement’ scheme, which involves those who need care being shown how to care for themselves.
He said: “I believe this is a real awakening for the service and proves to us that we are not looking after our elderly and vulnerable as well as we could do.
“This has required a rapid response and some radical overhauling so that we can put the necessary reforms into the service.
“I expect shortly the start of the improvements we all want to see – this illustrates the need to urgently modernise the service – something that we have been pushing for some time.”
At Monday’s cabinet meeting emotive speeches were made by councillors, service users and staff alike.
A member of staff was applauded by the audience after she said: “If we wanted to work for the private sector we would have applied.
“Look at what the people out there want and make the right decision by this group of people.”
Another woman added said: “You are slowly, but surely killing my mother and I cannot and will not take that any longer.”
As a result of the report, Simon Danczuk, Rochdale’s Labour parliamentary candidate, called for Councillor Mulgrew’s resignation.
He said: “Councillor Mulgrew’s answer to the catalogue of failures highlighted in this inspection report is to pay off the head of service, who oversaw those failures, with early retirement and a golden handshake, then to simply privatise the service.
“His judgment has to be questioned.
“It’s no way to spend public money, it’s no way to treat our most vulnerable residents and it’s no way to manage frontline workers.”
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1/12/2007 at 18:58
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